Due to heavy reconstruction of this webpage, this blog is temporary suspended to renew in this summer, it will be updated again after late-autumn, thank you for your visits in these 9 years.

2 August 2014

Rare Birds of Henderson

$4,40 : Henderson Lorikeet (施氏吸蜜鸚鵡)
$2,10 : Henderson Reed Warbler (亨島葦鶯)
Pitcairn Islands (2011)
20th July, 2011. Pitcairn Islands

Henderson Island is part of the Pitcairn Group and was designated a World Heritage site in 1993. Renown for having the largest pristine raised coral atoll in the world and an ecology that has remained intact from human activity, Henderson Island is in trouble. With four endemic bird species, eight snails and nine plants found nowhere else in the world, Henderson is also home to marine turtles and twelve different seabird species, including four types of petrel.

It is the plight of the petrel that has captured the attention of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and they have initiated the Henderson Island Restoration Project which involves the planned eradication of introduced rats that are driving the Henderson petrel towards extinction. Over 95% of petrel chicks on Henderson are killed by rats within one week of hatching - over 25,000 chicks every year. These rats are also competing with the other land birds and therefore may be limiting their populations.

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